The Wonders of Honeybees

I have been looking forward to hearing what kind of stories our two honeybee experts have for us today.

Since June of last year, I have been raising Western honeybees at the Chutobu Junior High School as part of our classes. Although I am a science teacher, I was actually a complete amateur when it came to honeybees. However, since April of last year, Dr. Hiromi Sasagawa, a bee expert, has been coming to the school as a part-time lecturer, and I started keeping them under her guidance.

I see. I know Dr. Sasagawa well.

After graduating from the Faculty of Law, I worked for a general company. However, I have loved living things and nature since I was a child, so I was thinking about trying to find a job in that field. It was then that I met my husband, a beekeeper at Fujiwara Beekeeping in Morioka, Iwate, at a Spanish language class I attended after work.

At the time, he was learning Spanish because he was planning to go to South America in the near future to do large-scale beekeeping. When I heard all about honeybees and beekeeping from him, I thought, "This is it!" (laughs). My parents and friends were all completely against the marriage, but I left Kamakura, where I was born and raised, and moved to Morioka.

Fujiwara Beekeeping is a farm with a 120-year history since its founding, isn't it?

Yes. At first, I was helping with the beekeeping, but when my children got a little older, I decided I wanted to study honeybees seriously. I took a reckless challenge and applied for a graduate program at the Faculty of Agriculture, Iwate University, through the adult student admission track.

Every day after I entered was difficult, but what was shocking was that even though I entered wanting to study honeybees, the theme I was given was the hornet, the natural enemy of the honeybee.

That must have been tough (laughs).

I thought, "What?!" but hornets are creatures very closely related to honeybees, so I pulled myself together, did my experiments and research, and somehow managed to get my PhD in Agriculture at the age of 51.

I was in the Faculty of Letters, Major in Archaeology and Ethnology. My child was born in the middle of my Doctoral Programs, and I was away from research for a long time during the child-rearing period. However, in 2014, I returned to research as a technical assistant in the Environmental Archaeology Laboratory of the Nara National Research Institute for Cultural Properties. Through various connections, I became a researcher at my current institute, the Research Institute for Humanity and Nature.

I wasn't originally a honeybee expert, but in the field of zooarchaeology, I studied shells and animal bones excavated from ruins, so I was doing things close to biology and the environment. Honeybees fit into everything: biology, food, environment, and culture. One day, a German colleague said to me, "In Germany, there are beehives even in parks, and every supermarket has locally produced honey, but I don't really understand Japanese beekeeping. I want to study it in detail." While we were researching together, I got hooked (laughs).

Honeybees really are involved in everything regarding the environment. At the Chutobu Junior High School, we are active in our efforts toward the SDGs, and keeping honeybees was part of that.

However, when I said I wanted to keep them at school, there were many concerns raised at the faculty meeting that the children might get stung. There was a back-and-forth: "No, I'll bring 'good' ones from the bee farm, so they won't sting." "What do you mean by 'good'?" "They are purebreds that aren't very aggressive." Finally, I got them to understand by saying, "There are other colonies of honeybees nearby, so even if someone gets stung, you can't prove it was one of our bees" (laughs).

That's amazing. Honeybees clearly have times when they are in a good mood and times when they are in a bad mood. For example, during warm periods with many flowers, they won't sting unless something special happens. But when the temperature drops, when flowers are scarce, or when hornets are around, they get irritable and might sting just from opening the hive lid.

Also, if your usual work is rough, they will get in a bad mood. For example, if you crush a bee with the hive lid, alarm pheromones are released from the venom gland. If that happens repeatedly, the bees' temperament becomes increasingly aggressive. That's why beekeepers work very carefully and gently.

I'm working with Dr. Hiromi Sasagawa, and she really handles the bees gently. She approaches the box while talking to the bees. She told me, "Don't approach from the front of the hive," so I open and close the lid while talking to them from the back or side.

I'm careful not to pinch the bees, and when I see their antennae are stiff and they are on alert, I make sure not to touch them suddenly. I use a smoker to calm them down before proceeding. When I do that, the bees' mood gradually changes.

With Japanese honeybees, you have to handle them even more gently. Otherwise, they will quickly escape and disappear.

That's true. I think many people in the general public don't know the difference between Japanese honeybees and Western honeybees. The native Japanese honeybee has lived in Japan for a long time, but in the Meiji era, the Western honeybee, a livestock species, was introduced via America. Mr. Fujiwara's grandfather was a pioneer of modern commercial beekeeping and spread it throughout the Tohoku region.

At our Research Centers and Institutes, we intentionally keep Japanese honeybees. Since they are wild bees, there are many differences from Western honeybees. If the environment around the hive is bad for some reason, the whole colony might go somewhere else, and the amount of honey collected is small.

The reason we keep them is that by interacting with wild bees, we begin to think about what "wild" means and what honeybees are. To avoid upsetting the bees, we do things like placing the hives in locations where flowers bloom year-round as much as possible. By doing this, our awareness of the surrounding environment gradually expands.

It's almost impossible to buy Japanese honeybees. Right now is exactly the swarming season (when part of a colony splits off to create a new nest), and it's common to catch them at that time.

Ms. Fujiwara, you are currently running the "Japanese Native Honeybee Society." Does that mean you also keep Japanese honeybees at your bee farm?

At Fujiwara Beekeeping, we raise Western honeybees for commercial use, and the Japanese honeybees kept by the "Japanese Native Honeybee Society" are more for hobbies and research. My husband started this society in 1989, and there are about 1,100 members nationwide, including Ms. Shinkai.

Right now, there is a huge global momentum regarding the importance of native species. Even before Western honeybees entered Japan, Japanese honeybees were the ones shaping Japan's forests and nature by utilizing the flowers of trees. I want to protect these creatures that have performed such roles, and I want everyone to know about them.

So there is great significance in protecting the Japanese honeybee.

Yes. However, it is actually a time of hardship for the Japanese honeybee. One reason is that the tracheal mite, a tiny mite that enters the trachea of adult bees, was first discovered in Nagano in 2010 and has since spread across the country with incredible speed. Furthermore, viral diseases are moving north from western Japan, and these two factors threaten to wipe out entire colonies.

Honeybees live in close quarters, and they come into contact with bees from other colonies at various times, so diseases spread rapidly.

Since Japanese honeybees are more delicate, is it also more difficult to keep them?

Yes, I think so. For Western honeybees, strains that are gentle and easy for humans to keep, or strains that store as much honey as possible, have been selected. Japanese honeybees remain wild, without any such intervention.

Their nature is sensitive; even a slight vibration can cause them to vibrate their wings all at once and make a "shwaaa" threatening sound. And if they don't like something, they will suddenly abscond and disappear. Beekeepers struggle just to get them to "stay." But they are slightly smaller than Western honeybees and are truly lovely bees.

Once we actually started keeping them, students and teachers would say, "I saw one over there!" and report various sightings inside and outside the school, which makes me happy.

The most reported location was near the Abelia flowers. It's also called Tsukubane-utsugi and is used for hedges in many homes and plantings along roads. And once you start keeping honeybees, you start wanting more flowers in the school. So, since last year, we have been working on planting flowers with long blooming periods.

We've bought and planted many Abelia and lemon saplings, but first and foremost, I want to plant many flowers that have pollen and nectar.

I once conducted a survey asking beekeepers, "What do you learn from honeybees?" and just as Mr. Nakamura said, by keeping honeybees, everyone starts planting flowers and notices the types of roadside trees and mountain trees or flowers they hadn't noticed before. It seems they start thinking not just about flowers, but also about butterflies, pesticides, and even global warming.

Because of their affection for honeybees, their perspective expands to the entire ecosystem. That's why I think the fact that honeybee projects are spreading across Japan, like the one at the Chutobu Junior High School, has great educational significance and is very important.

The charm of honeybees is amazing. As we discussed earlier, people who initially asked, "Won't they sting?" find themselves becoming honeybee fans before they know it.

That's true. Even with situations like global warming and environmental changes that humans somehow endure, looking at the bees makes you realize, "Wait, isn't this bad?"

There was a time when the bees seemed to lack energy, and children would bring them to me on their notebooks, saying, "The bee isn't moving." At first, I didn't know the cause, but when I looked into it, it seemed that pesticides might be the reason. This was because, around the same time, many stink bugs were clinging to the classroom window frames. I thought perhaps pesticides used for stink bugs had weakened them.

At Fujiwara Beekeeping, we have also suffered terrible pesticide damage where honeybee colonies were wiped out or weakened. In the case of Western honeybees, they fly within a radius of about 2 to 3 kilometers. Within that range, there was a rice field where neonicotinoid pesticides were sprayed to get rid of stink bugs on the rice. Since these are systemic pesticides, they spread throughout the entire plant. These pesticides drastically reduce insect and bird populations and have a negative impact on the environment, including soil and water.

Also, according to a survey by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, major nectar sources such as black locust and mandarin orange have decreased by about two-thirds over the last 30 years. Since bees rely entirely on flowers for food and shelter, this is a truly grave matter.

Furthermore, this global warming and climate change are also difficult. Flowers bloom earlier, or flowers that used to bloom separately now bloom at the same time. There are also many instances where Japanese honeybee nests fall during the extreme heat of summer. Bees struggle to fly from flower to flower even in a slight breeze, and they cannot fly in strong winds. Not to mention, recent heavy rains and typhoons wash away entire hives. Beekeeping is established through the complex interaction of bees, plants, and climate, so I think changes in the natural environment will become increasingly difficult in the future.

That is truly worrying.

Once you start keeping honeybees, you begin to understand their daily activities. They leave the hive at sunrise in the morning. During the day, I can't track where the bees have flown on my own, but occasionally I get reports from children or the janitors saying, "Oh, they were here." In the summer, they fly around seeking water from the pool hoses on the roof of the gymnasium.

After noon, they all fly around the hive in a big swarm. This is apparently a flight training called "tokisawagi" (reorientation flight) to memorize the position of the hive and the surrounding scenery. After that, they fly off somewhere again and return at night.

They are insects with very good memories. For both Japanese and Western honeybees, adult bees that emerge from spring to summer have a lifespan of about one month. Moreover, about half of that time is spent working inside the nest—cleaning, raising larvae, tending to the queen, and building the comb or making honey.

When that is finished, they do the dangerous outdoor work, but if they just flew off suddenly, they wouldn't know the location of their own nest and couldn't return. Flying around the area while facing the nest is a way of flying to memorize the hive's position necessary for returning from outdoor work. This is the "tokisawagi" Mr. Nakamura mentioned. It's also called an orientation flight or localization flight. After doing that, they go outside and bring back nectar, pollen, water, and so on.

As Ms. Fujiwara said, in the life cycle of a worker bee, going to collect nectar is really only the final period of its life. And while we call them "worker bees" as if they were office workers, they are actually all female.

They don't just go to collect nectar; they also collect pollen and water. Pollen is necessary as protein to give to the larvae, and water is also important. Learning these things is truly fascinating.

As mentioned in Ms. Fujiwara's story, neonicotinoid pesticides don't just stay on the surface of the leaves; they penetrate the inside of the plant, so they remain in the flowers, stems, and leaves. Furthermore, the fact that they remain in the soil is a major problem. When those pesticides are sprayed on rice fields, if honeybees go to drink the water in the fields or go to clover flowers on the paths, they can be exposed to the pesticides and die in large numbers. (*In addition to drinking water, honeybees may visit rice fields to collect pollen when the rice is in bloom. Even if it doesn't lead to mass death, they may ingest trace amounts of pesticide components.)

When stink bugs suck the juice while rice is growing, it creates spots on the white rice called "spotted rice." To prevent this, farmers spray pesticides. However, nowadays there are color sorters that filter out even the slightest spots, so spotted rice almost never reaches consumers. Therefore, excessive pesticide spraying shouldn't really be necessary, but it is done to ensure the first-grade rice standard under the rice grading system.

So, by learning about honeybees, you can also learn about various things such as the role of insects in crop pollination, agriculture, and food system issues.

Recently, I feel that children's dislike of bugs is becoming more intense. One survey showed that parents of children who dislike bugs also dislike bugs. If a mother says, "Don't touch bugs," the child will definitely grow up to dislike them. I want caregivers and parents to observe together, asking, "I wonder what kind of bugs will come to this flower?" Otherwise, I think the cycle of disliking bugs will continue across generations. Ultimately, this might be an indirect cause of why pesticide use doesn't decrease.

They don't have to like them, but I want to create an environment where they can live while accepting the state that bugs are normally present.

That's very true. This year, I saw a drone (male bee) being kicked out of the hive and felt sorry for it, so I took it home.

Since the female's ovipositor has changed into a stinger, male bees have neither an ovipositor nor a stinger. My children were also surprised when they first saw the bee, but when I said, "This one doesn't have a stinger, so it won't sting," they started touching it immediately. Since then, they look for honeybees even when we go to the park.

I want to create a cycle centered on honeybees, so I am currently introducing worm composting at the school. At first, everyone thought worms were gross, but as they learn about the cycle where vegetable food waste is put in and comes out as liquid fertilizer, they stop feeling so much aversion toward worms, which are decomposers.

I feel every day that I must continue to show them these things.

Going as far as worm composting is truly cutting-edge. I've been thinking about putting one in my house but haven't introduced it yet, so I think it's amazing.

That's a wonderful activity. I was in charge of hands-on tours at Fujiwara Beekeeping for 10 years, and about 7,000 people, from elementary and junior high school students to the general public, experienced the ecology of honeybees. Their feelings toward honeybees are completely different before and after the experience.

They take honey from the hive frame with their fingers and taste it, hold the frame to feel its weight and warmth, and listen to the sound of the wings to experience it with all five senses. When they do that, their awareness changes. They understand, "I didn't get stung, and honeybees perform a very important role." I think it is very important to actually interact with nature and living things.

I'd like to ask about honey. Is it different between Japanese honeybees and Western honeybees?

The difference in honey mainly depends on the types of flowers they collect from. Western honeybees have a high ability to collect nectar and can be harvested flower by flower. The taste, color, and aroma differ significantly for each flower, which is interesting.

For example, in Morioka, the first thing we can harvest each year is cherry blossom, followed by apple, horse chestnut, black locust, tulip tree, and chestnut in that order.

In the case of Japanese honeybees, honey is often harvested only once or twice a year, so it becomes "hyakkamitsu" (multi-flower honey), a natural blend of many types of nectar. And you can taste a slight acidity.

Are the types of flowers the bees collect nectar from different to begin with?

Both types of honeybees go to roughly the same flowers, but the frequency is different, and Japanese honeybees tend to prefer the flowers of inconspicuous trees more. Also, their flight range is different. Western honeybees fly within a radius of about 2 to 3 kilometers, but Japanese honeybees fly within a narrower range. The amount of honey that can be harvested is also small and precious.

Honey reflects the plant environment around the hive. I hope you can taste it while imagining that landscape!

I happened to have these at home, so I brought them: three types of honey—cherry blossom, black locust, and thyme. The colors are completely different, aren't they? If you go to the Fujiwara Beekeeping shop, there are many varieties, and when you line them up, you can really see the difference in color. Naturally, the taste is different too. Chestnut honey and buckwheat honey have very dark colors.

Buckwheat honey is practically pitch black.

When people taste these, they instantly sense the differences in flowers and nature through the color, aroma, and taste, saying, "Oh, they're so different!" We call it a "honey trap" (laughs).

Looking at Mr. Shinkai's website, I see that beekeeping methods vary significantly across different parts of Japan.

That's right. There is still much that is unknown about the history of Japanese honeybee beekeeping and regional differences in techniques, so I have started compiling that information.

The history of beekeeping is also completely different between Japan and the West. Ancient Egyptian murals depict beekeeping, the Bible describes a land flowing with milk and honey as the "Promised Land," and beeswax was used for candles in churches. In Japan, historical documents regarding systematic beekeeping only become numerous around the Edo period.

In reality, it is possible it was practiced a bit earlier, and of course, honey and beeswax had been coming in from places like China before then. Even in the Heian period, honey was donated from the provinces to the central government, so it seems it was being harvested in various places, but there is much we don't know about the extent to which actual "beekeeping" using beehives was practiced.

While frames are sometimes used for Japanese honeybee hives, wooden boxes are the main type. The comb itself is a bit more fragile compared to Western honeybees, so it is difficult to move the hives frequently.

Therefore, there are various hive shapes depending on the region, ranging from hollowed-out logs to vertical and horizontal hives. Furthermore, because individuals add their own personal touches, the variations are truly abundant.

I found the video of traditional beekeeping in Kozagawa very interesting. Even within the same region, people use different tools, and blacksmiths make custom-made tools to order.

Even just for honey harvesting tools, there is a wide variety. When harvesting honey, you need tools to cut out the honeycomb from inside the box. In regions where beekeeping is popular and blacksmiths still remain, there is a culture of having your own "personal tools" made.

Also, the "stackable box" (jubako) type is a hive where a new box is added to the bottom as the comb grows, and once the honey accumulates, you cut from the top like a game of Daruma Otoshi. It's an efficient way to harvest honey. Recently, this stackable style has been spreading nationwide.

Isn't it difficult to keep both Western honeybees and Japanese honeybees together?

If possible, it's better not to place Japanese honeybees and Western honeybees in the same location. This is because from the rainy season through autumn, when nectar becomes scarce, Western honeybees often enter the hives of Japanese honeybees to steal honey. The reverse can also happen.

Also, while Japanese honeybees can defend themselves against giant hornets through "heat-killing," Western honeybees are frequently wiped out by them. Giant hornets do not exist in the native regions of Western honeybees, but since Japanese honeybees have lived alongside them for a long time, I believe they have developed countermeasures.

What exactly is the method of heat-killing?

First, a single scout giant hornet comes to the Japanese honeybee hive. It then smears pheromones on the hive to call its companions. If they don't defeat this scout, more hornets will keep coming. The moment one worker bee is bitten to death, dozens of Japanese honeybees pounce on the scout all at once, forming a ball. By vibrating their thoracic muscles, each bee raises the temperature to about 48 degrees Celsius while simultaneously increasing the carbon dioxide concentration to kill the scout hornet.

That's amazing.

It was discovered by Japanese researchers, and it's a famous behavior that even overseas researchers call "Great!"

Heat-killing can fail, and in that case, giant hornets come one after another. When that happens, Japanese honeybees abandon the hive and flee. However, Western honeybees will not abandon the hive until the very end; they keep charging at the giant hornets and get bitten to death by those powerful mandibles. Then, all the Western honeybee larvae and pupae in the hive are taken away, and the colony is wiped out. Hornet species have carnivorous larvae. That's why the parents catch various insects, including honeybees.

Conversely, it's because they could perform heat-killing that Japanese honeybees and giant hornets have been able to coexist.

That's likely true. Also because they have the nature to flee.

To humans who keep bees, hornets are hateful enemies, but they actually play a major role in the natural world. There was an interesting study on black hornets; when their hive activity was observed, they reportedly brought in 227 flies in just one hour. If hornets didn't exist, pests would increase, and perhaps flowers might even stop blooming. Hornets might also be indirectly helping honeybees survive.

I feel that the mechanisms of nature are unfathomable. For example, hornets sit at the top of the natural ecosystem in Satoyama, but if a queen hornet is parasitized by nematodes during hibernation, she becomes sterile. According to research, 70% of overwintering yellow hornet queens were found to be parasitized by nematodes. Even hornets, which seem like kings, are by no means invincible in nature.

Knowing things like that is very surprising. I believe it's important to nurture a "Sense of Wonder," as Rachel Carson called it—the sensitivity to marvel at the mysteries of nature—from childhood in order to protect biodiversity.

Also, in a survey measuring the economic value of crop pollination titled "The Rich Harvest Brought by Insects to Japanese Agriculture," Western honeybees accounted for about 20% of the total contribution, while the remaining 70% or so came from wild insects, including Japanese honeybees, and birds. Wild insects are pollinating crops without us even knowing; that is something to be very grateful for.

As Ms. Fujiwara just mentioned, whenever we hold honeybee workshops, we always make sure to mention throughout the talk that "honeybees aren't the only ones helping with pollination." Honeybees are important, but that's not the only thing we want to convey through them.

That's very true. But they are certainly creatures that are easy to talk about and draw people's interest because they produce honey.

Beekeepers call honeybees "creatures granted by heaven." Not just honey, but royal jelly, propolis, beeswax, pollen, bee larvae, and bee venom can all be utilized. An alcohol called mead, said to be the oldest in the world, can also be made from honey. It's truly amazing that such a small worker bee, only about 1.5 centimeters long, produces such a wonderful variety of products. I have feelings of gratitude and respect for them.

What makes me feel happy is watching the worker bees come home carrying pollen baskets. The larvae grow by eating that pollen, royal jelly is made from the pollen to become the queen's food, and the next generation of queens is born. In that way, there is a connection to the future.

Furthermore, by collecting pollen, they pollinate the flowers of various plants to produce fruit, which becomes sustenance for many living things. There is an expansion and a cycle, and I feel a richness that transcends time and space.

I feel the same way. The color of the pollen differs depending on the flower and is very beautiful. They come back with such large pollen baskets attached to their bodies, waddling and shaking their bottoms, and then land with a thud in front of the hive. It makes me want to pet them and say, "Oh, you worked so hard" (laughs).

One beekeeper said, "No, those guys are smarter than humans. Humans won't understand them even if they spend their whole lives trying."

Keeping bees in the city has become popular. I heard this was triggered by the Fujiwara Beekeeping Farm starting in Ginza.

Actually, Fujiwara Beekeeping Farm had been doing rooftop beekeeping on a building near the Imperial Palace since 2000. When that building became too small and we were looking for another, the person who later became the chairman of the Ginza Honeybee Project said, "You can use this building." My husband suggested, "I'll teach you, so why don't you try it?" and provided beekeeping guidance. That's how the people of Ginza started the Ginza Honeybee Project in 2006. Now everyone's beekeeping skills have improved, and they seem to be harvesting about one ton of honey a year across several locations.

Ginza has many long-established shops and department stores, and they are very active in developing and selling delicious sweets, dishes, and alcohol made with the harvested honey. Now, the rooftops of Ginza buildings have become rice paddies, vegetable gardens, and flower gardens, and this happened because the bees came. Also, Ginza is close to the Imperial Palace and Hamarikyu Gardens, and there are many parks around. Consequently, they collect a lot of nectar from wildflowers and street trees like tulip trees and horse chestnuts.

Since they are harvesting an unexpected amount, it means there are plenty of flowers.

Honeybee projects like this have spread across the country and are now reportedly being carried out in about 100 locations.

If the Chutobu Junior High School can harvest honey in the future, it will become a brand.

That's true. It might be nice if we could release something like "Mita Honey" with The Pen Mark on it. Around the Chutobu Junior High School, there are many embassies of countries that are the heartlands of Western honeybees, such as the Australian, Italian, and Hungarian embassies. Perhaps they are doing beekeeping there too, and I dream of being able to cooperate with them in the future.

Since getting involved with honeybees, I've gained more acquaintances—not exactly "bee friends," but people I know—and life has become more enjoyable. Not just beekeepers, but farmers, school teachers, doctors, and various other people keep them as a hobby.

Mr. Nakamura gave the example of abelia flowers earlier; I also saw many bees perched on them and realized anew that even though I thought those flowers wouldn't have nectar, they actually have quite a bit, and I've started looking at them differently. So even just walking through the city becomes fun.

I think all beekeepers feel this now, but the way flowers bloom is clearly changing. For example, bumblebees come to pollinate a northern flower called Ezo-engosaku (Corydalis ambigua), but one year, the flowers bloomed far too early, and because the bees hadn't woken up from hibernation yet, the two didn't meet. As a result, it's said that very little fruit was produced. If global warming progresses, there is a risk that symbiotic relationships like this will break down.

Important nectar and pollen source plants are also decreasing, so I would be happy if people could plant native species and herbs even in their private gardens.

There is research showing that in buckwheat fields surrounded by broadleaf forests, the pollination rate of buckwheat increases. This is because various pollinating insects, including Japanese honeybees, come from the broadleaf forest. Since broadleaf forests serve as homes and provide food for insects and Japanese honeybees—which are also called the honeybees of the forest—I hope we can increase them.

The Japanese Native Honeybee Association also recommends planting by selecting such tree species.

That's right. Keio University has about 160 hectares of school forests across the country, with the easternmost being the Shizugawa forest in Minamisanriku and the westernmost being the Ochiai forest in Maniwa, Okayama. The year before last, I took the children from the Chutobu Junior High School to Okayama. The people doing forestry there also said that broadleaf trees are important, not just conifers.

We started with honeybees, but I feel I want to connect this to the school forests and work on it together with the children in the future.

I have a colleague who is a forest expert, and she has recently become very interested in honeybees and is moving forward with research. This is because forestry workers apparently don't have much awareness of nectar-source plants. For example, there is a common tree called Soyogo (Longstalk Holly), but because it's the kind of tree that makes the forest dark, people think it's okay to cut it down, but Soyogo produces good nectar. Currently, she is researching what kind of tree species might make for a good nectar-source forest depending on the region.

Also, while the Ginza Honeybee Project had a big impact throughout Japan, in the Netherlands, where beekeeping is popular, there is a term called "Bee Highway." It's the idea that if you do rooftop greening and plant flowers, honeybees can travel between buildings in the city like a highway. I think it would be fun if that kind of thinking spreads more and more.

I have truly heard many valuable stories today. Thank you very much.